Chinese Man Films Airport, Convicted of Leaking State Secrets

From Sohu & NetEase:

Man who filmed and uploaded video of military aircraft gets suspended sentence

Fuzhou news agency: Yongtai disabled person Huang X ignored the advice of passersby, filmed a video of military aircraft at Yixu Airport, and uploaded it onto the internet, not realizing that he had violated the law. At present, Yongtai County Court has sentenced him to 14 months imprisonment with a suspended sentence of 18 months for the crime of intentionally leaking state secrets.

2009 August, Huang X arrived at Cangshan district [in Fuzhou] in a disability mobility vehicle to visit his son working at Huangshan. As he passed by Yixu Airport, out of curiosity, he used the digital camera he had on him to film a video of the Yixu signage, airport facilities, and several military airplanes. As he was filming, a passerby reminded him, “You can’t film, you’ll be arrested”, but Huang X paid no heed and continued filming, the entire video lasting over one minute.

After returning to Yongtai, Huang X uploaded the video onto his personal public blog/website, and even wrote in the video introduction: “Went to Fuzhou Huanshan and passed by Yixu Military Airport, was very excited to see it closeup, because this is the first time I’ve seen airplanes, so I filmed it…” He also stated: “I’m not a spy!” Up until it was stopped by the relevant departments, this video had been viewed by netizens over 15,000 times.

This video was identified by the Air Force Fuzhou Command Confidential Committee as showing 3 classified items and 3 secret items, seriously damaging national defense and military security interests.

After hearing the case, Yontai County Court believes that defendant Huang X violated the regulations of the “Protection of State Secrets Law”, knowing that the Yixu Airport video he filmed involved state military secrets and still disseminated it to the public through the internet, a serious situation, his actions constituting the crime of intentional divulging of state secrets. In view of his voluntary guilty plea, display of regret, disability, the aforementioned sentenced was therefore rendered.

Comments from Sohu:

移建中琴690748 [搜狐吉林省白山市网友]:

If an ordinary commoner can capture it on film, who knows what foreign special agencies could do. This clearly shows that we’re not doing a good enough job protecting our secrets, and are just dragging in an ordinary commoner as a show. Talk about deceiving ourselves/putting our heads in the sand.

独孤九剑20110317 [搜狐江苏省常州市网友]:

If its national secrets, then there should be relevant personnel around to seal off the area and institute special measures, why was it this easy for someone to film? If this person didn’t upload the video onto the internet, would you have been able to arrest him? What if it really was a foreign spy who was filming? It’s obvious that a lot of things in our country are truly full of loopholes and oversights.

耳聪目明367760 [搜狐河北省石家庄市网友]:

A regular pedestrian can use such a simple method to leak secrets… May I ask what our agencies responsible for protecting secrets are doing?

快乐的自由之鹰 [搜狐云南省昆明市网友]:

If even a disabled person can openly capture it on film, does it really have any worth as a secret? Could the spy satellites in the sky and the spies on the ground not also capture them on film? Simply picking on the weak, so wrong!

2008yf [搜狐山东省网友]:

If even pedestrians can capture 6 classified secret items, what secrets would you have left to talk about after a trained spy walked by?

a789205 [搜狐内蒙古自治区呼伦贝尔市网友]:

Secrets? What a joke.
The real secrets are that some leaders/government officials break laws and regulations, that some leaders/government officials collude with land developers to forcibly demolish the ordinary common people’s homes without regard for their lives and deaths.

桃园居士2012 [搜狐辽宁省辽阳市网友]:

If common ordinary people can see them, then this airport is doing too lousy of a job protecting its secrets. Recommend a strict investigation be carried out.

勤谨 [搜狐湖北省省直辖行政单位网友]:

Truly ridiculous, any ordinary pedestrian can capture national secrets on film as they please.

三红2011 [搜狐河北省保定市网友]:

If these secrets can be filmed, it shows that the relevant departments are failing in their duty. Is there any investigation of responsibility?

Comments from NetEase:

网易香港网友：

National secrets indeed must be protected.
If he had captured the LD drinking Maotai [a famous and expensive Chinese liquor], having sex with their secretaries, then he ought to be severely punished even more.

流氓小亨 [网易江西省九江市网友]：

I severely denounce this kind of secretly filming behavior. I deeply regret him being sentenced with the crime of leaking state secrets!

网易IANA网友： (responding to above)

He wasn’t secretly filming, right? He was doing it openly and candidly. What you [the government] have here isn’t even that advanced. The things other people [countries] show off in airplane exhibitions/shows are all several decades more advanced, and you consider it classified? Laughable!

不关闭评论了 [网易广东省深圳市网友]： (also responding to 流氓小亨]

This kind of behavior is extremely dangerous, it makes it very easy for hostile countries to discover our secrets.

内阁总理大臣李鸿章 [网易山东省济南市网友]： (responding to above)

Haha, [a video just] a little over a minute, and with so many people passing by that stretch of road, the American Imperialists don’t even send spies there to take a look… those American imperialists sure are stupid.

网易香港网友：

So hostile forces are relying on this photograph/film?
Are the satellites in the sky all used for filming the LD drinking Maotai?

内阁总理大臣李鸿章 [网易山东省济南市网友]：

The Philippines and Japan are taking photos of our ships and planes, how come you don’t arrest them?
You have the duty to defend the country and you end up bullying a disabled person, that’s real impressive, real admirable.

网易广东省广州市天河区网友：

What a disabled person could capture on film has probably already been filmed dozens of times by foreign spies. Have the relevant people in charge dealt with that yet?

网易香港网友：

If this can be sentenced, then wouldn’t those who leak information about the “Three Public Expenses” [government officials using public money to private dining, private car, and travel abroad expenses] be sentenced to death?